I just had to share this...

Usually I just "favorite" videos on the class YouTube Page when I find one that's relevant to what we're doing in class, or just stands out as cool or inspiring; and hope that you'll check them out, but when I came across this one, I wanted to make sure you had a chance to see it.

The short is called Tick Tock and was created by Ien Chi for a film festival at Emory. Chi says of his film: "Never have I put in so much effort into a single short film. This project is the result of hundreds of hours of work from many people. Originally made for Campus MovieFest, this film is definitely the biggest scale and most ambitious project I've ever done."

What's exciting about this video is its unique format, shot all in one take, then reversed for the final effect. Some more information about filming: "Filmed with a 5d mark ii camera with a 24-70mm lens on a steadicam merlin. We did 36 takes to get the right one. Morgan and I went running weeks before to get our cardio into shape for the shoot. Yes, the final film is all in one take. Everything was shot on the Oxford College of Emory campus."



What do you think? What are your initial reactions to the film? What can you incorporate into your productions? What do you think about the quote, did it surprise you in any way? How about the speaker of the quote? What critiques do you have? Compliments?

And for those who love to watch the movie extras on a DVD, here you will find the "behind-the-scenes":

Facebook Domination

If you haven't heard of Facebook, it may be time to crawl out from under that rock, dust off your 1993 Toshiba laptop and log in. In the past year, Facebook has reached an ultimate high - from it's Academy Award nominated "loosely based" film, to it's over 500 million active users - it has creamed it's competition and forced it's name into everyone's mouths. A place to showcase your vacation photos, check up on that ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, create "groups" that can organize thousands of demonstrators and overthrow governments or get funding to build statues in Detroit, play games, post your innermost thoughts, and yet you wonder... what else can Facebook do?

Good thing you asked! Introducing Facebook's newest venture...Video Rental Company! Er... ?? That's right, according to an article on businessinsider.com Facebook's movie rental experiment may be the future of media. As an "experiment" Facebook will be offering digital rentals of Batman: The Dark Knight through the site. Users can buy the rental with Facebook Credits, and Facebook takes a cut. This puts Facebook in direct competition with Hulu, Netflix, and other companies looking for a piece of the digital media pie.

The overall business strategy of Facebook is to have as much activity go through its social graph so it can take a tax on that activity, and give the businesses something back in return. For example: if games on Facebook go viral, Facebook takes a 30% cut of the virtual credits plus the millions in advertising for games.

So now it's your turn. I'd love to hear what you think about the Facebook Domination. With as many users as Facebook has, will it ultimately turn into a digital media GIANT that will gobble up the "lowly" competition? Have you seen the Blockbuster stores going out of business? Where do you think Facebook will "experiment" next?

The Power of Words

A teacher shared this with me a little while ago, and I just got a chance to watch it. What a fantastic video. This short film illustrates the power of words to radically change your message and your effect upon the world. He said "there is no better way to teach the importance of words than with this video." It is really beautiful how it is put together. Take a second and watch this short video and let me know what you think.

This short story winner of the 2008 Cannes Festival shows how the kindness of strangers can have a big impact. Film produced by Alonso Alvarez Barreda.

Subtitled Version (original)


English Version

Music by: Giles Lamb
Filmed by www.redsnappa.com
Director Seth Gardner

What did you think she was going to write? How did you feel after watching this? What other concepts like this can you think of? What message is this video trying to send? Why do you think now, more than ever, words mean so much? I'd love to hear from you!